Insurance

Kinds of insurance, e. g., life, fire, accident, etc.-kinds of policies e. g., endowment, etc.-benefits and risks. of insurance.

Similar series of talks are being planned in many Associations for this year. The Commission on Thrift and Efficiency would like to have suggestions for additions or modifications of the above outlined series, and would welcome letters or printed matter giving plans for stimulating the interest of the membership along this lineeither through practical talks or in other definite ways.

FOREIGN CONFERENCES

Summer Conference at Wo Fo Ssu, North China, June 21-30.

There was no doubt as to whether North China was ready for a conference or not. Missionaries and Chinese Christians responded with such enthusiasm that quite a while before the date of the conference there was double the number of registrations planned.

Saturday, June 21, proved to be a clear, warm day. We all started in rickshas, but some were obliged to change to long carts as soon as we left the Peking Wall. Others walked and still others rode on donkeys. The long journey was full of interest, for the road was the one built especially for the Emperors, from the western gate of the city to their summer palaces near the hills. After we had passed the summer palace we were in a rolling hill country, among the old Manchu garrison villages and watchtowers. As we bumped over the stony river-bed up the valley, the wooded spot in which is found Wo Fo Ssu, the Temple of the Sleeping Buddha, came into view. A long avenue of tall cedars led up to the three-arched gateway. A marble bridge over a gold-fish pond led to the first enclosure. Court opened out of court in a seemingly endless succession. The old Buddha lay in the central court on a huge wooden couch, stretched out to his full sixteen feet, a calm, placid look on his round face. The northern and eastern sections of the temple and a series of buildings and courtyards on the west have been rented by the Young Men's Christian Association for summer conferences for fifteen years. Such an ideal spot as it is, with its beautiful old trees, its great variety of birds, its piles of rocks, and an unexpected summer-house or shrine here and there! The attendance at the conference numbered

82 Chinese and 15 foreigners. The program included the Bible classes, discussion on Association methods, and platform meetings. The speakers for these platform meetings were especially strong-Mr. C. T. Wang, vice-speaker of the Senate; Mr. C. Y. Chang, China's delegate to the Edinburgh Conference, and now a secretary of the Chinese Continuation Committee; and Pastor Ding Lee Mai, who is known to many as the D. L. Moody of China.

Of course the usual recreation and rest was taken in the afternoons-games, tennis, climbing hills, a reception by the leaders to the delegates, at which fancy Indian club swinging was a special feature. College day was entered into by the Chinese students in a most enthusiastic manner.

It had been deemed wisest by the conference committee to limit this conference to Christians. At the last Sunday afternoon meeting the girls had an opportunity to tell what the conference had meant to them personally. As one after another spoke, and the ruling note of the conference was personal responsibility for winning others to Christ, we knew that the purpose of the conference had been realized. We could see what it was going to mean to the homes and villages round about, and we long for the day when there shall be a conference in every section of China.

Second Student Conference for Woo Dialects, Shanghai, China, July 6-13.

We were invited by the Southern Baptist Mission to use the buildings and grounds of their girls' school for the conference. The school had, of course, closed for the summer, and the building with all its equipment was turned over to us, including the servants, chop sticks, rice bowls, etc.

By six o'clock Saturday evening the halls and rooms were full of bright-faced, eager Chinese girls, each with her little pink ribbon bow to show that she was in residence as a regular delegate.

In China the language as well as other things has to be taken into consideration in deciding what limitations shall be set upon attendance! The registration numbered 86, about thirty of whom were young teachers. There were representatives from twenty different institutions, including a kindergarten training school and two nurses' training schools. Eleven denominations were represented.

The theme of the conference was, "The True Plan for Woman in God's Purpose for China." The program does not greatly differ from conferences of American students; it is made up of Bible classes (led by Chinese young women), discussion of Association methods, platform addresses, vesper services, and afternoons devoted to recreation.

At the beginning of the conference a real conference spirit had arisen, due to the fact probably that there were ten present who had already attended one such conference and many others had come very expectant as a result of the reports carried back from the former one.

In America we know little of the difficulties the women in other countries meet in their attempt to follow Christ. It is impossible to conceive of the inspiration it is for them to meet dozens of other girls who are meeting like problems with theirs and are overcoming some of them. It means infinitely more to meet Christians of their own race than any number of Christians of the West because they know we seldom meet with such difficulties as they do in living the Christian life.

We felt that God was in this conference in a wonderful way, and we thank him for every girl who came and ask him to keep us true to our promises to remember each other in prayer before him, that all may honor him in their homes and in their schools.

Japanese Student Conference at Otsu, Japan, July 22-26.

The Japanese Conference of 1913 was held at Otsu on the shore about a day's

journey from Tokyo. There was a registration of over 200 at the conference, with 140 in attendance all of the time. The conference committee was composed largely of Japanese young women; the program proved most helpful and the second summer conference at Otsu proved a deepening influence in the lives of those in attendance.

Australia.

The Triennial Convention of Australia was held at Melbourne October 23-28, 1913.

Oriental Students at Summer Conferences, 1913.

Fifty-nine foreign students attended the summer conferences of 1913. This number included: Chinese, 37; Japanese, 12; Indian, 6; Korean, 1; Armenian, 1; Brazilian, 1; French, 1.

At three of the conferences (Pacific Coast, Central Student and Eastern Student) the Chinese and Japanese students held group councils which proved most helpful. At the Eastern Student Conference the students from India held a similar group council each day.

CITY NEWS ITEMS

An innovation in board meetings has been started in Quincy, Ill., which is doubly interesting in view of the account of the new kind of National Board meetings described elsewhere in this issue. The Quincy directors now meet from 11 to 3 o'clock, and thus have opportunity for luncheon and a social hour together in addition to the regular business session.

The teachers of the city schools and the State normal school were entertained at an informal reception given by the Young Men's and Young Women's Christian Associations together in Bellingham, Washington. Members of the two Boards of Directors were in the receiving line. The young men gave an exhibition of swimming and diving and the young women did their share in serving the refreshments. It was felt that the evening succeeded in its purpose in creating a cooperative spirit between the teaching force of the city and the two Christian Associations, and the affair will probably become an annual event. A similar reception was held by the Young Women's Christian Association of Gloversville, New York, in accordance with the custom of several years.

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Rows of cots filled the gymnasium of the Syracuse Association during the State Fair week. So many women and girls who came into town for the fair could not find regular lodgings, it was great accommodation to open the doors of the Association for all sorts of purposes during the week. The Association was represented among other women's organizations at a reception given in the "Woman's Building" erected for the affair. On "Grange Day" the meeting held in the Woman's Building was conducted by the Association, whose work was presented with special reference to the needs of country girls coming to the city for work.

Five popular features given on five consecutive evenings opened the fall work of the Minneapolis Association with a flourish: (1) A lecture was given on salesmanship; (2) a diving and swimming contest advertised the new swimming pool; (3) a concert on the third evening attracted attention to the musical element in the Association; (4) a play called the Association Flower Garden represented the other departments of work; (5) a joint banquet was given by the South America and Geneva clubs, closing with a series of scenes which recalled conference memories.

The Camp Fire Girls of the Lancaster, Pa., Association combined to give a corn roast dinner on the banks of the Cone

stoga River. The preliminary announcement is enough to make one's mouth water as well as to arouse interest in the variety of Camp Fire groups: "The Blue Bird and Wabasso groups of children will skirmish and arrange the wood ready for lighting; the Ramona girls will be given the honor of lighting the Fire with the Official Ceremony; the KoKoKoHo group of girls will serve the rolls and butter and arrange tables and places on the ground in an attractive manner; the Owaissa group will prepare and serve the coffee and watermelon; the Shawandassee and WaWoNaissa groups of young women will prepare, cook and serve the meats. Each one of these groups will leave everything connected with its assignment in good order after the dinner is over. All are to wear their official ceremonial dresses, dress at home. and put on headbands and feathers after getting there."

The latest in membership campaigns is a ten-day motor-boat race on the Panama Canal, held in Buffalo. A special observation train, which speeds along the banks of the Canal to set the pace for the motor boats, supposedly carries the members of the Board of Directors and the standing committees. The teams which reach the city of Panama first by securing a given number of members will be rewarded by a real boat ride down the Niagara River and the first crew will also be given a special night in the Association swimming pool.

"I wish you could see our girls and boys playing on our new tennis court. It is as good a court as there is in the city and the best lighted one. We have dozens of neighborhood children playing in our grounds, too-the ones who have not an inch of yard at home and who come ragged and dirty with babies in arms, and go-carts. The place looks more like a day nursery than a Young Women's Christian Association, but we love having it that way and at night the young women have their chance."East Side Branch, Cleveland, Ohio.

A publicity campaign was held at the Association of Jacksonville, Fla. A feature of it was based on the principle of contagion of personal enthusiasm, in that during the week forty business women actually called upon 1,000 of their fellow business women to give them a personal invitation to make use of the Association buildings.

A poster contest to which all the girls of McKeesport, Pa., were eligible, was held at the Association of that city that it might secure posters advertising its features.

STUDENT NEWS ITEMS

The Freshman Frolic held by the Association of the Kansas State University had as one of its features a campus processional of upper-class girls with freshman partners, each holding a Japanese lantern.

The twenty-ninth annual reception of the Young Men's and Young Women's Christian Associations of the University of Illinois was held in October in the new building of the latter Association.

The successful use of the foreign pageant by the Association of the University of Illinois in November, 1912, is suggested by the accompanying pictures, and is of special interest this month. Not only did the use of the pageant help in creating interest in mission study, but aroused the attention of a good many girls who had not been familiar with the Association's work. By a ten-cent admission twenty dollars was cleared.

Tentatively it was suggested that the Summer School Association membership have a share in the supervisory work of the Young Women's Christian Association, and, while this was not possible everywhere this year, Ohio University, at Athens, has set the pace with a pledge of $8.55, very nearly forty per cent of their summer school Association dues. large membership of about two hundred proved that the girls in the summer school want the Association.

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It was hard to believe that they were responsible teachers most of the year, to watch them playing Ring Around Rosy, Drop the Handkerchief, and Three Deep,

singing old-fashioned songs and dancing the Virginia Reel there on the open campus just at dusk. But they were, and this was the way the Young Women's Christian Association in the Summer School at the West Virginia University took to entertain the three or four hundred teachers who studied there this summer. Ice cream cones and lemonade sold at cost served for refreshments, and when they trooped home. tired but hilarious, the Association girls thought contentedly"Perhaps they will go and do likewise for their own schools-a sort of village festival. Anyhow, we'll suggest it."

A definite result of the recommendation on membership made at the Richmond Convention was the nature of the membership campaign conducted this fall at Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Virginia. The campaign emphasized personal responsibility in an unusual way. Following a general Sunday night address by Miss Mary Porter, the field secretary, small groups of freshmen were spoken to by older girls who had been chosen in the spring to present in this way the local work and a freshman's relation to it, while at the same time the older girls, grouped according to classes, were addressed by representatives of their own class. At these meetings the address given by Miss Jessie Woodrow Wilson at Richmond was read by each speaker, and the girls accepted its challenge. The result is a larger and much more responsible membership. The card catalogue system will be used in giving each member a definite piece of work to do, and it is hoped that a broadcast dis